पूजा विधी

Some families keep Gauri for exactly three days regardless of how long Ganpati stays; others extend or shorten it slightly by family custom. Either is correct; there is no single mandated length beyond the three core days of avahan, pujan and visarjan.

Along the Konkan coast, Gauri is often welcomed as Ganesha's sister rather than his mother, and in fishing communities the visarjan becomes a procession with singing and dancing down to the water.

In Vidarbha, a Kanishtha, younger, Gauri is sometimes worshipped alongside the Jyeshtha Gauri as a pair, and the naivedya leans on sixteen vegetables and sixteen chutneys, with mango given special importance where the season allows.

In Pune and much of the Desh region, the tall bamboo-frame Gauri with an elaborate saree and jewellery is common, and the evening haldi-kumkum gathering tends to be the larger, more social event of the two days.

The exact form of Gauri, a metal mukhwata, a terracotta face or river pebbles, is family custom, not scripture; none is more valid than another. The count of sixteen dishes is a guideline, not an inspection: cook what the household can manage, and let puran poli carry the tradition if nothing else does.